Chapter Seven

The rest of the day up until five minutes before sixth period started went by in a blur. I was now standing outside of Mr. Barnes’s room, taking in deep breaths and trying to brace myself for the upcoming encounter with Daniel. I managed to get the door open with my eyes closed and stepped in. I opened my eyes and searched the room for Daniel’s face which wasn’t anywhere in sight.

 I felt the fear drain from me and I calmly walked to my desk and set my books down. This class and the next were the classes we had to work on our projects all class. I guess I could make it through. Daniel had said that he was sorry, so maybe that was supposed to be taken as a treaty of our peace? I hoped so, because I didn’t think I could last through another hour or day feeling his horrible gaze on my bruised up face.

At that moment I lifted up one of my hands and touched the side of my face that the bruise from the park had been. It still hurt a little when I prodded at it. I pulled out my mirror and looked at it closely. You could barely see the purple, but I couldn’t say as much for the bruise on the other cheek. It was slightly darker than the other one, but still a lot more noticeable.  I sighed and put my mirror away.

            That was when I noticed Daniel standing in front of my desk. I jumped a little from surprise. “Hey.” I whispered, looking at his solemn face. He smiled at my innocent reaction and replied, “Hey there.” Then he walked to his desk in the back of the room. I let out the breath I had been apparently holding and leaned down in my seat.

            Now that I actually thought about it, every time I saw Daniel, my heart sped up and my breathing came short and quick. And every girl knows what those symptoms lead to. Pure love. Oh gosh. Please, no. There is no way I can love Daniel. No matter how sweet he has been this day. There is absolutely no way that would ever happen. But still…maybe?

            No, no. That is nonsense. He’s beaten me and used me. How could I love such a man? Although he is cute…Alas, he’s an a*****e. There can’t be any way for me to love him. Not at all. I turned around in my seat and caught him staring at me. He blushed and looked down at his book open on his desk. I blushed too and turned back around. And then I remembered; what about Blake?

            Blake was the sweetest guy I had ever met. From the moment I met him I knew he was a great guy. He just had that look. And plus the moment he saw me he was immediately sympathetic and asked if I was all right. Now that is what anyone would consider a truly kind person. And that was true. He was really considerate, and not to mention funny. Plus Blake was really cute. What else could you ask for in a guy? Nothing really, so why am I thinking about Daniel, this guy who for the past year has done nothing but torture me on the inside and out. Am I crazy too?

            I thought back to the moment that I was sitting on the sidewalk crying when Blake had come up and saved me from my mental breakdown. It had been like Daniel had tied two bricks to my feet and thrown me into a salty sea. Gasping for air would only make it worse, so I decided to hang on to my last bit of air. Though at the same time I was sinking lower and lower into a place where I could never return from once I got too deep into.

            But there I was, drowning on the sidewalk, and here comes Blake just walking along. He could have just seen me and kept walking. But no. He came right up to me, sat down and asked me if I was all right. I remember looking up into his pale sky blue eyes and thinking I was looking at an angel. He was the first glimpse of heaven I had seen in a while. He was the buoy out of my drowning fate, and I would always owe him for that, even if he denied it and said it was just something he had to do.

            Right there and then sitting in social studies class, debating my life choices, I decided that I would never deal with Daniel again. We could be partners in this class and have to go over to each other’s houses to work on this dumb project, but no matter what we were not going to be friends. I didn’t care how sorry the dude was. He did what he did and no amount of apologizes was going to change that. Sorry, Daniel, but I’ve moved on. And I think that you should too.